Nutella (Alternate Version)

. 59 .

Michael's irritated at himself for not handling the situation better, especially concerning lukes frailness. He's over stressed with the extra little and all the Ashton drama going on and acted without thinking and probably made himself more problems.

Calums cries die down quickly and Michael kisses the boys head and tells him to stay here in bed while he goes and talks to Luke.

He goes to find the boy, who is now silent and no where to be seen.

"Luke? Honey? Come out please?" He calls throughout the house with no answer.

"Lukey baby, I promise I'm not mad anymore. I'm sorry for yelling honey, Mikey was just frustrated. That wasn't nice of me. Can you please come out so we can talk?" He speaks in a high pitched, sweet tone, looking around the house for the boy and cursing himself in his head for screwing up so bad.

He hears sniffles coming from the kitchen and frowns when he reaches it, seeing no trace of the boy and no longer hearing anything.

"Lukey? Sweetie? I promise I'm not gonna hurt you or be upset or yell, can we please talk honey? I'm sorry I got upset." More sniffling, and he locates the source this time, opening the pantry door and finding Luke curled up in the corner.

"Oh baby, I'm so sorry. Can I get you out of there?"

"No!" Luke whimpers. "I'm Sowwy! Pees! Sowwy!" The boy cries.

"Honey, it's alright, I'm not going to hurt you. Can you come out please? I won't touch you if you don't want me to, we can just sit and talk, okay?" Luke looks at the man with teary blue eyes and sniffles, contemplating.

"You want Mikey to go get you your Paci and your bunny? Then we can talk?" Luke nods and Michael smiles.

"Okay, I'll be right back. Why don't you take some deep breathes for me for now, okay?" Luke nods and Michael rushes off to find the items he'd promised Luke before coming back and sitting on the kitchen floor with them.

"Here, sweetheart." He says, patting the spot in front of him. Luke scoots out, reaching for the items, and Michael hand them to him when he gets a bit closer.

"Okay honey. Good job taking breaths. Alright. I'm sorry I got upset and yelled, that was scary, huh?" Luke nods. "Yeah, that wasn't nice of me, I should've been more calm. I'm sorry I scared you. You know I'm never going to hurt you though, right?" Michael asks and Luke sucks his pacifier, hesitating before nodding. "Okay, good. I will never ever hurt you. I'll try not to yell again, okay?"

"Otay." Luke lisps around the pacifier.

"Okay. Now Lukey, you know what you and Calum did was not okay, right? You knew better before you did it?" Luke looks down.

"Cali said we no play with paint without Mikey but he say you no know. Then we paint, but we accidenty got it on da wall and den we painted on da wall for fun. No good. Bad Lukey and Cali. I'm sowwy. Das bad." Luke sniffles.

"Yes honey, you boys aren't to paint without me so you don't make a mess. You knew you shouldn't have done that and it's not okay to go behind mikeys back. You boys aren't bad, you just didn't make a good choice. It is not okay to paint on walls either, right?"

Luke looks up at Mikey and tears up. "Mikey spank Lukey?" He whimpers fearfully and Michael frowns.

"No sweetheart. It was naughty, but I'm not your daddy, so I'm not gonna give you a spanking. You are gonna have to sit in timeout though." Luke frowns at that.

"But timeout for change attude. Lukey know was bad." Michael has a hard time deciphering the words but gets the jist.

"Did Ashton use timeouts for changing attitudes?" He asks and Luke nods.

"Okay. Well Mikey uses timeouts to think about what we did wrong and how we can do better next time, so we're still gonna use it. I want you to go put your nose in a corner, I'm gonna take bunny-"

"No! My bunny!" Luke protests and Michael's eyebrows raise.

"Excuse me little one, we don't get to have toys in timeout and if you argue with me you won't get bunny back until tomorrow." Michael warns, surprised at lukes sudden brattiness when he'd seemed so remorseful a second ago. Luke frowns and his eyes scrunch shut and he breathes heavily and Michael thinks he's about to start screaming his lungs out when lukes eyes snap open again.

"You can't take bunny away until tomorrow! He's a comfort item, m-my mum gave me it when I was little an- and I-I'll have a panic attack, you can't take him Mikey, I'm sorry, I need him, I'm upset, I need him, you can do anything else, you can't take bunny!" Luke explains frantically, fully out of headspace, and Michael listens carefully and nods.

"Okay, okay honey, I didn't understand that, I'm sorry. I promise I won't take bunny away, and if you really need him in timeout you can have him. Thankyou for using your words and explaining nicely, bubba." Michael says softly and Luke takes deep breaths, nodding and sighing in relief, seeming to slip right back into headspace.

"Do you want a cuddle before you go in timeout, little one?" Michael asks and Luke gladly accepts, lifting himself into Michael's lap and sniffling as he accepts the cuddle. Michael stands with the boy on his hip and bounces him briefly before taking him upstairs and to a corner in the hall way, putting him down facing it.

"I'll tell you when you can come out." Michael says and Luke frowns.

"Timer?" He asks and Michael shakes his head.

"No, ill decide when I think youve thought about what you did wrong and how you can do better for long enough." He answers and Luke looks down.

"What if Mikey forgets?" He whimpers and Michael frowns, wondering if Ashton or lukes previous dominant before Ashton had a habit of leaving him in timeout for long times.

"I won't forget sweetie, but I can set a timer if it makes you feel more safe." Luke nods at that and Michael smiles, showing the boy as he sets a fifteen minute timer.

"I'll see you in a bit sweet pea." He kisses the blonde hair and goes back to Calum, who's waiting on his bed.

"Is Lukey okay?" Calum asks.

"Yes honey, Lukeys just in timeout." Michael says and Calum frowns.

"But I got spankies! No fair! How come Lukey only gets timeout?" The boy says quietly.

"I'm not gonna spank Luke, baby, I'm not his daddy. Besides, you were the one who knew the rules that you weren't allowed to play with paints without daddy." Michael explains.

"Yes you are! And Lukey knew too, I told him! It's not fair, we both did the same thing and he got in less trouble!" Michael frowns, not used to seeing this kind of jealous behavior from Calum.

"Cali." He explains. "Lukey was very scared when I got upset and he was very scared that I yelled. I know that doesn't scare you very much but that was nearly punishment enough for him. And I'm
not his daddy, I can't spank him. He's in timeout to think about what he did wrong and what he can do better, I promise you are both getting fair punishments."

"No! You are Lukeys daddy!" Calum whines and Michael frowns.

"No honey-"

"I want you to be!" Calum protests and Michael sighs.

"Lukey has a daddy baby, I'm sorry that makes you upset but I don't know what to tell you." He says, leaving it at that and pulling the boy into his lap to cuddle for the remainder of lukes timeout.

When Michael fetches Luke from the corner, the boy apologizes again and they hug, and all three work on cleaning up the playroom, with Michael hiding the paints in his room this time.